As the quantity of available information on computer networks has increased, and as users have become accustomed to accessing this information through fixed computing devices (such as a desktop personal computer permanently connected to an appropriately provisioned network) and laptop computing devices (having either a wired or wireless connection to a network), users have demanded access to the same information through their mobile devices. Specifically, users now expect to be able to access stock quotes, baseball scores, restaurant listings and the like, including accurate network search results, from their mobile devices. In addition to expecting access to such information, users also desire intuitive, attractive, convenient and useful presentation of the information on their mobile devices, having become accustomed to such presentation from their desktop and laptop computing devices.
Desktop and laptop computer display monitors or screens tend to be large, and generally provide ample display-screen “real estate” for elaborate and extensive information presentation. Because users may typically desire attractive and comprehensive information presentation, conventional user interfaces for desktop and laptop computers have been designed to exploit the abundant presentation area generally available on desktop computer display monitors or laptop computer display screens. For example, a desktop or laptop computer user may launch a browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) and tender a search query to a network search engine, such as Google. The search engine may execute a network search using the tendered query, and the user may then be presented with search results that include textual descriptions, images, titles, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), size metrics, embedded machine-executable code, or some combination thereof. Moreover, a large number of search results and related information may be concurrently displayed on the desktop monitor or laptop display, providing the user with a wealth of content and a plethora of options. Additionally, a wide variety of input devices exist for entering or acquiring data with desktop or laptop machines, or for making selections with applications running on conventional desktop or laptop computing devices. Examples include keyboards, mice, microphones, scanners, cameras (still or video), touch-pads, joysticks, trackballs, pointing devices (such as IBM's TrackPoint device), etc.
Presenting information to users of mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., is much more difficult, however, because such devices are typically equipped with considerably smaller display screens, and may have fewer options for inputting data. Additionally, mobile device display screens may have limited resolution capabilities compared to desktop monitors or laptop computer displays. While the smaller screen sizes commonly found on mobile devices facilitate device portability and reduced weight, they make effective content presentation and user interface interaction with users complicated and challenging by limiting the amount of content that can be presented to a user within a particular view. Users may become frustrated with inadequate or inferior content presentation on their mobile devices, which may in turn reflect poorly upon the mobile device provider or content providers.